Patagonia Report: A Battle Through “Fangorn Forest” & Sweet Corn On High

Report from September 9, 2026

We started the day in a meadow, crossed a stream, then delved into “Fangorn Forest.”

Well, we tried to cross a creek.

The first thing Skip did was fully dunk one of his boots in the creek for some reason.

Lost & Found Stats:

• 2,975 vertical feet
• 3.6 miles
• 2 hours & 41 minutes to the top
• 5 hours & 15 minutes round trip

I think his foot felt hot or something.

Not much we could do, honestly…

He took the boot off, drained the shell, took off his sock, and wrung it out.

Then he put it all back on and we continued up.

The snowpack was shallow to nonexistent, and we wallowed.

A few trees started getting really grabby.

I caught a handful of trees walking out of the corner of my eye.

When the wind blew, some of the trees were even talking to us…

One particularly nasty tree ripped the gloves off my pack and strewed them across the forest floor.

Unkind, I know, especially because I didn’t even notice for another hour or two.

As we climbed, the forest grew calmer and kinder.

Bigger spaces between trees, more snowpack, better travel.

After about an hour and a half, we emerged from 1,500 vertical feet of forest battle and gained the ridgeline.

We took a water and candy break, glad to be out of the clutches of the Ents.

The route to the top from the edge of the forest was clean and simple.

Stay on the ridge all the way to the top.

We gleefully climbed along despite the wind battering us from the west.

Had it been a cold day, the wind woulda hurt, but it was a warm day and all that was required was to don a jacket, gloves, and hood as we happily glided along.

We were atop quickly after gaining the ridge.

We searched high and low yet found no shelter from the incessant west winds.

There were 3 lines to choose from.

Skip dropped first, chose the skier’s right line, and crushed it.

He radioed back that the snow was variable, then an isothermic mess down low.

I dropped into firm, crusty snow that turned into fun, thin corn snow.

I felt good and my tails were blowing out of the beautiful corn.

As I got low, the pack got real thin and then isothermic and gross.

I rocked out on a mini nose I was on, then augered into the nasty, soft snow down low.

Regardless of the low mank, I was hyped.

That was a crazy fun run and it felt good to bag it after having seen it from so far away.

True triangulation, as we saw this line the previous day from the zone that looks like “The Cirque” at Kirkwood, CA, and we’d seen that zone from an entirely different, very distant zone the day before that.

I feared the exit as I knew the forest was thick and that I had to follow my exact path uphill to attempt to recover my sweet Hestra gloves that were stolen by Fangorn Forest.

It was thick. It was brutal.

I found the gloves, and I was only 5 minutes behind Skip.

Back in the meadow we were happy to have escaped the Fangorn unscathed and with all our gear.

Gracias, Chile!

Photos